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Voight ignites a blog storm in Hollywood

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Jon Voight praises McCain and repudiates his own Vietnam War protests as the failings of a deluded youth.
AP Photo

Jon Voight intended to turn heads with the “very strong points” in his Washington Times op-ed last week. But he probably didn’t expect so many of them to reside in Hollywood.

In a sign of the growing interest in politics this election year, bloggers who normally focus on the entertainment industry are expanding their presence in one of the Internet’s other spheres of influence.

Voight’s piece slammed Democratic candidate Barack Obama, praised GOP contender John McCain and even repudiated his own Vietnam War protests as the naive flailings of a deluded youth. It was a stunning bit of self-revelatory memoir from the now-conservative “Coming Home” star.

The political blogsosphere, of course, went ballistic. Then Jeffrey Wells, who runs the movie and pop culture site Hollywood-Elsewhere.com, took Voight to task for his right turn and wrote that, if he were a studio executive, he might think twice before hiring Voight for any future film work. “[Voight is] obviously entitled to say and write whatever he wants,” wrote Wells. “But it's only natural that industry-based Obama supporters will henceforth regard him askance. Honestly? If I were a producer and I had to make a casting decision about hiring Voight or some older actor who hadn't pissed me off with an idiotic Washington Times op-ed piece, I might very well say to myself, ‘Voight? Let him eat cake.'"

Voight seemed particularly taken aback by Wells’ blog postings, which many have interpreted as a call for blacklisting the actor. “It’s out of line to insinuate that we should blacklist people for speaking their minds,” Voight told Politico. “It’s a strange thing when people in this country can’t express their opinions without being attacked.” He added that Hollywood liberals frequently discuss topical issues, and “it’s an important time for people on the conservative side to speak out.”

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But Voight also told Politico that his op-ed “speaks for itself” and he didn’t have much interest in getting on a soapbox or becoming a poster boy for right-wing Hollywood. “Listen,” he said, “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. I made some very strong points, and you do expect that people are going to respond to it in a variety of ways. And that’s how it should be.”

Though Wells mostly covers films and highly esoteric cineaste topics such as proper screen size ratios, he veered into political postings early last year, and, after becoming taken with Obama, he has been devoting more space than ever before to dissecting MSNBC pundit chatter and New York Times op-ed pieces.

“You have to feel it on some level, and I was feeling as strong about [politics] as I was about some movies,” said Wells. “As I started feeling more comfortable with the subject, it became easier to punch out, I started having fun, and it got some real rises out of people.” He said he has gotten complaints from longtime readers who feel his blog is moving away from entertainment issues, but he doesn’t care.

“I have to explain to people that it isn’t just one realm anymore: Everything is bleeding into everything else,” he insisted. “There’s a political undercurrent to everything now. Even ‘Mamma Mia’ got made because Meryl Streep saw the play a month after 9/11 and loved the way it lifted the audience’s spirits — she wrote a letter to producers, and that got the ball rolling for the movie version.”

As far as his comments about Voight, Wells said his response about a “theoretical” blacklisting was not “offensive, per se” — despite the near “cyber-riot” by political bloggers such as Instapundit, Powerline and the National Review Online, as well as from fellow film writers and commenters who responded to his vilification of Voight with outrage.

It's about time somebody in Follywood had some sense and spoke out against the "stalinist" mentality of so called "liberals" who are only liberal about their rights to express themselves. I hope more closet Hollywood Americans come out and voice their real feelings.

Given Hollywood's penchant for making so many bad, violent movies, such as "300," "I Am Legend" and the grandpa version of "Rambo," I'm frankly surprised there aren't more hatemongering, warmongering, blood lusty Republicans there.

Yes, it is about time someone stepped up to those CA Liberals- Who cares if Angelina doesn't talk with him or if she does- Angelina is a baby making machine in an economy where she doesn't care for anyone but herself. Obama is wrong for the country and if CA switches to RED the Democrats are done for good. Don't the CA people know Pelosi is a loser, too?? Oh, that's right, they can't see two feet in front of their seflish noses.

Gee, I knew there was more to Angelina Jolie's negative attitude toward her dad (Voight) than she was letting on. Other than his rumored abusive treatment of her mother, Voight's politics probably offend Angelina as much as they do me. But I have a special reason for disliking him. While he repudiates, in hindsight, his anti-Vietnam stance, I embrace mine anew. Some of us did what John McShame did not do: we chose to stay home, fight the draft machine, and protest against Dow Chemical, manufacturers of napalm, as well as other war profiteers and war mongers. (I had braces put on my teeth, which made me a last resort recruit, but I was prepared to go to Canada if necessary.) I am proud of what I did and will never repudiate it. The Iraq War is even more evil than the Vietnam War. If the U.S. instituted a draft at this time and I had a son or daughter eligible for induction, I would do all I could to help them dodge the draft. It's time we taught our chief executive to quit meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations. John Voight is a disgrace.

..."...regular writers such as The Weekly Standard’s Joel Engel, Commentary’s next editor John Podhoretz, and novelist-screenwriter Andrew Klavan, the latter causing a bit of a hubbub last month with his Wall Street Journal op-ed that compared elements of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight” to the national security stance of George W. Bush."

Hmmm, I'll need to read that article. As for Obama the Joker and his Democratic and Liberal clown support, I believe they would rather watch the world burn rather than make the right choices and do the right things. Literally...

..."...regular writers such as The Weekly Standard’s Joel Engel, Commentary’s next editor John Podhoretz, and novelist-screenwriter Andrew Klavan, the latter causing a bit of a hubbub last month with his Wall Street Journal op-ed that compared elements of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight” to the national security stance of George W. Bush."

Hmmm, I'll need to read that article. As for Obama the Joker and his Democratic and Liberal clown support, I believe they would rather watch the world burn rather than make the right choices and do the right things. Literally...

If the U.S. instituted a draft at this time and I had a son or daughter eligible for induction, I would do all I could to help them dodge the draft. It's time we taught our chief executive to quit meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations. John Voight is a disgrace.

Only losers use America for its benefits and don't contribute when the going gets tough. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Don't let selfish cowardice blind you from the truth.

I'm sure he is now on the black ball list in Hollywood. It cracks me up to see the "open minded" Hollywood left. they are open minded to anyone that thinks like them. Everyone else is just plain stupid.

Blacklisting in Hollywood was a tool of the right. Now Voight thinks it should not be applied to him because being blacklisted is not nice. Maybe he can recall Ronald Reagan's term as leader of the actors guild and how he turned on several actors accused of being communist. (The part of this country that shows the most Stalinist tendencies is the right wing because America's right wing has always admired terrorizing the citizenry.) Time has come for the liberals to show the right wing how pleasant life is when you are being shunned for your political views.

It's amazing the whining and intolerance shown by the "compassionate" left when someone expresses a descenting view. It's encouraging that even in Hollywood there is some reason and maturity left. Hopefully it will spread. Liberals like to threaten to leave the country when things don't go their way, maybe if they actually did for awhile they would appreciate the liberty we have here. If not, they may find happiness in a nanny socialist state and stay there. Either way is good for the rest of us.

I don't really care what Jon Voight thinks. I do find it however that you can be 'blacklisted' for saying what's on your mind in Hollywood. I wasn't aware that we were still living in the 1950's. Where's HUAC when you need 'em?

"Time has come for the liberals to show the right wing how pleasant life is when you are being shunned for your political views."

Wow, that's amazing. Libs invent excuses to whine. Who essentially controls Hollywood, the news media, and the universities? If you're honest, you know the answer is the socialists. Now, exactly when were you ever shunned for your views?